The Bolsheviks, founded by Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov, were by 1905 a major organization consisting primarily of workers under a democratic internal hierarchy governed by the principle of democratic centralism, who considered themselves the leaders of the revolutionary working class of Russia. Their beliefs and practices were often referred to as Bolshevism.

In the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, held in Brussels and London during August 1903, Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over the membership rules. Lenin wanted members "who recognise the Party Programme and support it by material means[6] and by personal participation in one of the party's organisations." Julius Martov suggested "by regular personal assistance under the direction of one of the party's organisations." Lenin advocated limiting party membership to a smaller core of active members, as opposed to "card carriers" who might only be active in party branches from time to time or not at all. This active base would develop the cadre, a core of "professional revolutionaries", consisting of loyal communists who would spend most of their time organising the party toward a mass revolutionary party capable of leading a workers' revolution against the Tsarist autocracy.

A main source of the factions could be directly attributed to Lenin's steadfast opinion and unwillingness to "bear opinions which were contrary to his own".[7][attribution needed] It was obvious at early stages in Lenin's revolutionary practices that he would not be willing to concede on any party policy that conflicted with his own predetermined ideas. It was the loyalty that he had to his own self-envisioned utopia that caused the party split. He was seen even by fellow party members as being so narrow minded that he believed that there were only two types of people: "Friend and enemy—those who followed him, and all the rest."[8]Leon Trotsky, one of Lenin's fellow revolutionaries (though they had differing views as to how the revolution and party should be handled), compared Lenin in 1904 to the French revolutionary Robespierre.[8] Lenin's view of politics as verbal and ideological warfare and his inability to accept criticism even if it came from his own dedicated followers was the reason behind this accusation.

The root of the split was a book titled What is to be Done? that Lenin wrote while serving a sentence of exile. In Germany, the book was published in 1902; in Russia, strict censorship outlawed its publication and distribution.[9] One of the main points of Lenin's writing was that a revolution can only be achieved by the strong leadership of one person (or of a very select few people) over the masses. After the proposed revolution had successfully overthrown the government, this individual leader must release power, to allow socialism to fully encompass the nation. Lenin also wrote that revolutionary leaders must dedicate their entire lives to the cause in order for it to be successful. Lenin said that if professional revolutionaries did not maintain control over the workers then they would lose sight of the party's objective and adopt opposing beliefs, and even abandon the revolution entirely.[9] Lenin's view of a socialist intelligentsia showed that he was not a complete supporter of Marxist theory, which also created some party unrest. For example, Lenin agreed with the Marxist idea of eliminating social classes, but in his utopian society there would still be visible distinctions between those in politics and the common worker. Most party members considered unequal treatment of workers immoral, and were loyal to the idea of a completely classless society, so Lenin's variations caused the party internal dissonance. Although the party split of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks would not become official until 1903, the differences originally began to surface with the publication of What is to be Done?. Through the influence of the book, Lenin also undermined another group of reformers known as "Economists", who were pushing for economic reform while wanting to leave the government relatively unchanged, and who failed to recognize the importance of uniting the working population behind the party's cause.[10][non-primary source needed][page needed]

Other than the debate between Lenin and Julius Martov; Lenin felt membership should require support of the Party program, financial contributions, and finally involvement in a Party organization whereas Martov didn't see the need for joining Party organizations, internal unrest also rose over the structure that was best suited for Soviet power.[10][page needed] As discussed in What is to be Done?, Lenin firmly believed that a rigid political structure was needed to effectively initiate a formal revolution. This idea was met with opposition from his once close followers including Julius Martov, Georgy Plekhanov, Leon Trotsky, and Pavel Axelrod.[11][page needed] Georgy Plekhanov and Lenin's major dispute arose addressing the topic of nationalizing land or leaving it for private use. Lenin wanted to nationalize to aid in collectivization. Plekhanov thought worker motivation would remain higher if individuals were able to maintain their own property. Those who opposed Lenin and wanted to continue on the Marxist path towards complete socialism and disagreed with his strict party membership guidelines became known as "softs" while Lenin supporters became known as "hards."[12]

The base of active and experienced members would be the recruiting ground for this professional core. Sympathizers would be left outside and the party would be organised based on the concept of democratic centralism. Martov, until then a close friend of Lenin, agreed with him that the core of the party should consist of professional revolutionaries, but argued that party membership should be open to sympathizers, revolutionary workers and other fellow travelers.

The two had disagreed on the issue as early as March–May 1903, but it was not until the Congress that their differences became irreconcilable and split the party.[13] At first the disagreement appeared to be minor and inspired by personal conflicts. For example, Lenin's insistence on dropping less active editorial board members from Iskra or Martov's support for the Organizing Committee of the Congress which Lenin opposed, The differences quickly grew and the split became irreparable.

The two factions were originally known as "hard" (Lenin's supporters) and "soft" (Martov's supporters). Soon, however, the terminology changed to "Bolsheviks" and "Mensheviks", from the Russian "bolshinstvo" (majority) and "menshinstvo" (minority).[14] On the other hand, Martov's supporters won the vote concerning the question of party membership. Neither Lenin nor Martov had a firm majority throughout the Congress as delegates left or switched sides. At the end, the Congress was evenly split between the two factions.

The average party member was very young. In 1907, 22% of Bolsheviks were under 20, 37% were 20–24 and 16% were 25–29. By 1905, 62% of the members were industrial workers (3% of the population in 1897[16]).[17] 22% of Bolsheviks were gentry (1.7% of the total population), 38% were uprooted peasants, compared with 19% and 26% for the Mensheviks. In 1907, 78.3% of the Bolsheviks were Russian and 10% were Jewish (34% and 20% for the Mensheviks). Total membership was 8,400 in 1905, 13,000 in 1906 and 46,100 by 1907 (8,400, 18,000, 38,200 respectively for the Mensheviks). By 1910, both factions together had fewer than 10,000 members.[18]

The two factions were in a state of flux in 1903–04 with many members changing sides. The founder of Russian Marxism, Georgy Plekhanov, who was at first allied with Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, parted ways with them by 1904. Leon Trotsky at first supported the Mensheviks, but left them in September 1904 over their insistence on an alliance with Russian liberals and their opposition to a reconciliation with Lenin and the Bolsheviks. He remained a self-described "non-factional social democrat" until August 1917 when he joined Lenin and the Bolsheviks as their positions assembled and he came to believe that Lenin was right on the issue of the party.

All but one member of the Central Committee were arrested in Moscow in early 1905. The remaining member, with the power of appointing a new one, was won over by the Bolsheviks.[19]

The lines between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks hardened in April 1905 when the Bolsheviks held a Bolsheviks-only meeting in London, which they called the Third Party Congress. The Mensheviks organised a rival conference and the split was thus formalised.

The Bolsheviks played a relatively minor role in the 1905 Revolution, and were a minority in the Saint Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies led by Trotsky. The less significant Moscow Soviet, however, was dominated by the Bolsheviks. These soviets became the model for those formed in 1917.

However, all factions retained their respective factional structure and the Bolsheviks formed the Bolshevik Centre, the de facto governing body of the Bolshevik faction within the RSDLP. At the Fifth Congress held in London in May 1907, the Bolsheviks were in the majority, but the two factions continued functioning mostly independently of each other.

Tensions had existed between Lenin and Bogdanov as early as 1904: Lenin had fallen out with Nikolai Valentinov, after the latter had introduced him to Ernst Mach's Empiriocriticism, a viewpoint that Bogdanov had been exploring and developing as Empiriomonism. Having worked as co-editor with Plekhanov on Zayra he had come to agree with the latter's rejection of Bogdanov's Empiriomonism.[20] With the defeat of the revolution in mid-1907 and the adoption of a new, highly restrictive election law, the Bolsheviks began debating whether to boycott the new parliament known as the Third Duma. Lenin, Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and others argued for participating in the Duma while Alexander Bogdanov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky and others argued that the social democratic faction in the Duma should be recalled.[21] The latter became known as recallists ("otzovists" in Russian). A smaller group within the Bolshevik faction demanded that the RSDLP central committee should give its sometimes unruly Duma faction an ultimatum, demanding complete subordination to all party decisions. This group became known as "ultimatists" and was generally allied with the recallists.

With most Bolshevik leaders either supporting Bogdanov or undecided by mid-1908 when the differences became irreconcilable, Lenin concentrated on undermining Bogdanov's reputation as a philosopher. In 1909, he published a scathing book of criticism entitled Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909),[22] assaulting Bogdanov's position and accusing him of philosophical idealism.[23] In June 1909, Bogdanov proposed the formation of Party Schools as "Proletarian Universities" at a Bolshevik mini-conference in Paris organised by the editorial board of the Bolshevik magazine Proletary in June 1909. However, this was not accepted and Lenin tried to expel him from the Bolshevik faction.[24] Bogdanov was then involved with setting up Vpered, which ran the Capri Party School from August to December 1909.[25]

With both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks weakened by splits within their ranks and by Tsarist repression, they were tempted to try to re-unite the party. In January 1910, Leninists, recallists and various Menshevik factions held a meeting of the party's Central Committee in Paris. Kamenev and Zinoviev were dubious about the idea, but were willing to give it a try under pressure from "conciliator" Bolsheviks like Victor Nogin.

One of the more underlying reasons that aided in preventing any reunification of the party was the Russian police. The police were able to infiltrate both parties' inner circles by sending in spies who then reported on the opposing party's intentions and hostilities.[26] This allowed the tensions to remain high between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. In turn it prevented them from uniting under common ground which could have possibly sped up the entire revolution.

Lenin was firmly opposed to any re-unification, but was outvoted within the Bolshevik leadership. The meeting reached a tentative agreement and one of its provisions made Trotsky's Vienna-based Pravda a party-financed 'central organ'. Kamenev, Trotsky's brother-in-law, was added to the editorial board from the Bolsheviks, but the unification attempts failed in August 1910 when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations.

The factions permanently broke off relations in January 1912 after the Bolsheviks organised a Bolsheviks-only Prague Party Conference and formally expelled Mensheviks and recallists from the party. As a result, they ceased to be a faction in the RSDLP and instead declared themselves an independent party, called Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) – or RSDLP(b). Unofficially the Party has been referred to as the "Bolshevik Party". Throughout the century, the Party adopted a number of different names. In 1918, RSDLP(b) became (All-)Russian Communist Party (bolsheviks) and remained so until 1925. From 1925–52 the name was All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks), and from 1952–1991 Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

As the party split became permanent and politically recognized in 1912 due to an all Bolshevik meeting of Congress further divisions became evident. One of the most notable differences was how each faction decided to fund its revolution. The Mensheviks decided to fund their revolution through membership dues while Lenin often resorted to much more drastic measures since he required a higher budget.[27] One of the common methods the Bolsheviks used was committing bank robberies, one of which in 1907 resulted in the party gaining over 250,000 rubles which is the equivalent of about $125,000.[27] Bolsheviks were in constant need of money because Lenin practiced his beliefs exercised in his writings that revolutions must be led by individuals who devote their entire life to the cause. To compensate he awarded them with salaries for their sacrifice and dedication. This measure was taken to help ensure that the revolutionists stayed focused on their duties and motivated them to perform their jobs. Lenin also used the party money to print and copy pamphlets which were distributed in cities and at political rallies in attempts to expand their operations. This was an obvious difference between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks party beliefs. Both factions also managed to gain funds simply by receiving donations from wealthy supporters.

Further differences in party agendas became evident as the beginning of World War I loomed near. Stalin was especially eager for the start of the war, hoping that it would turn into a war between classes or essentially a Russian Civil War.[28] This desire for war was fueled by Lenin's vision that the workers and peasants would resist joining the war effort, and therefore be more compelled to join the socialist movement. Through the increase in support Russia would then be forced to withdraw from the Allied Powers in order to resolve her internal conflict. Unfortunately for the Bolsheviks, Lenin's assumptions were incorrect and despite his and the party's attempts to push for a civil war through involvement in two conferences in 1915 and 1916 in Switzerland the party remained in the minority in calling for the ceasefire by the Russian Army in World War I.[28]

Although the Bolshevik leadership decided to form a separate party, convincing pro-Bolshevik workers within Russia to follow suit proved difficult. When the first meeting of the Fourth Duma was convened in late 1912, only one out of six Bolshevik deputies, Matvei Muranov, (another one, Roman Malinovsky, was later exposed as an Okhrana [Tsarist secret police] agent) voted to break away from the Menshevik faction within the Duma on 15 December 1912.[29] The Bolshevik leadership eventually prevailed and the Bolsheviks formed their own Duma faction in September 1913.

One final difference between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks was simply how ferocious and tenacious the party was willing to be in order to achieve its goals. Lenin was open minded to retreating on political ideas if he saw the guarantee of long term gains benefiting the party. This practice was commonly seen trying to recruit peasants and uneducated workers by promising them how glorious life would be after the revolution. His approach was "land seizure for the peasants and national self-determination for the minorities – as nothing more than temporary concessions."[27]

In 1918, at Lenin's suggestion, the party renamed itself the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In 1925, this was changed to All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In 1952, at the 19th Party Congress, according to Stalin's suggestion, the Bolshevik party was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

^Both a synonym to "Bolshevik" and an adherent of Bolshevik policies.[2]

^Derived from меньшинство men'shinstvo, "minority", which comes from меньше men'she, "less". The split occurred at the Second Party Congress in 1903.

^After the split, the Bolshevik party was designated as RSDLP(b) (Russian: РСДРП(б)), where "b" stands for "Bolsheviks". Shortly after coming to power in November 1917 the party changed its name to the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (РКП(б)) and was generally known as the Communist Party after that point, however, it was not until 1952 that the party formally dropped the word "Bolshevik" from its name. See Congress of the CPSU article for the timeline of name changes.

1.
Avel Enukidze
–
Avel Safronovich Enukidze was a prominent Old Bolshevik and, at one point, a member of the Soviet Central Committee in Moscow. In 1932, along with Mikhail Kalinin and Vyacheslav Molotov, Enukidze co-signed the infamous Law of Spikelets, soon he was accused of having deliberately diminished Joseph Stalins contributions to the printing press and the Bolshevik movement in Baku. In fact, Stalin had little to do with these things, but revolutionary contributions were important to a Bolsheviks prestige, and Stalin did not like Enukidze outshining him. Enukidze was rehabilitated as a victim of Stalins purges and his family name in Russian is transliterated incorrectly as Ienukidze, and his given name as Avel in Alan Bullocks Hitler and Stalin, Parallel Lives. Bullock also transliterates Enukidze as Yenukidze, transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic Leon Trotsky, Behind the Kremlin Walls

2.
Mikhail Kalinin
–
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, known familiarly by Soviet citizens as Kalinych, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist–Leninist functionary. He served as head of state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, from 1926, he was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kalinin was born to a peasant family of ethnic Russian origin in the village of Verkhnyaya Troitsa, Tver Governorate and he was the elder brother of Fedor Kalinin. Kalinin finished his education at a school in 1889 and worked for a time on a farm. He moved to Saint Petersburg, where he found employment as a worker in 1895. He also worked as a butler and then as a worker at Tbilisi depot, where he met Sergei Alliluyev. In 1906, he married the ethnic Estonian Ekaterina Lorberg (Russian, Kalinin joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, the year of its foundation. He came to know Stalin through the Alliluyev family, during the Russian Revolution of 1905, Kalinin worked for the Bolshevik party and on the staff of the Central Union of Metal Workers. He later became active on behalf of the RSDLP in Tiflis, Georgia, Reval, Estonia, in April 1906 he served as a delegate at the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Kalinin was an early and devoted adherent of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP and he was a delegate to the 1912 Bolshevik Party Conference held in Prague, where he was elected an alternate member of the governing Central Committee and sent to work inside Russia. He did not become a member because he was suspected of being an Okhrana agent. Kalinin was arrested for his activities in 1916 and freed during the February Revolution of 1917. Kalinin joined the Petrograd Bolshevik committee and assisted in the organization of the party daily Pravda and he continued to oppose an armed uprising to overthrow the government of Alexander Kerensky throughout that summer. In the elections held for the Petrograd City Duma in autumn 1917, Kalinin was chosen as mayor of the city, in 1919, Kalinin was elected a member of the governing Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party as well as a candidate member of the Politburo. He was promoted to membership on the Politburo in January 1926. When Yakov Sverdlov died in March 1919 Kalinin replaced him as President of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the name of this position was changed to Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR in 1922 and to Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1938. Kalinin continued to hold the post without interruption until his retirement at the end of World War II, in 1920, Kalinin attended the Second World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow as part of the Russian delegation. He was seated on the rostrum and took an active part in the debates

3.
Nikolai Bukharin
–
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and prolific author on revolutionary theory. As a young man, he spent six years in exile, working closely with fellow exiles Vladimir Lenin, by late 1924, this had positioned Bukharin favourably as Joseph Stalins chief ally, with Bukharin soon elaborating Stalins new theory and policy of Socialism in One Country. Together, Bukharin and Stalin ousted Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev from the party at the XVth Communist Party Congress in December 1927, from 1926 to 1929, Bukharin enjoyed great power as General Secretary of Cominterns executive committee. But Stalin’s decision to proceed with collectivisation drove the two men apart, and Bukharin was expelled from the Politburo in 1929. Arrested in February 1937, he was charged with conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state and executed in March 1938, Nikolai Bukharin was born on September 27,1888 in Moscow. He was the son of two schoolteachers, Ivan Gavrilovich Bukharin and Liubov Ivanovna Bukharina. His childhood is recounted in his mostly autobiographic novel How It All Began. Bukharins political life began at the age of sixteen with his lifelong friend Ilya Ehrenburg when he participated in student activities at Moscow University related to the Russian Revolution of 1905 and he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906, becoming a member of the Bolshevik faction. With Grigori Sokolnikov, he convened the 1907 national youth conference in Moscow, by age twenty, he was a member of the Moscow Committee of the party. The committee was heavily infiltrated by the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana, as one of its leaders, Bukharin quickly became a person of interest to them. They married soon after their exile, in 1911, during the exile, he continued his education and wrote several books that established him as a major Bolshevik theorist in his 20s. His work, Imperialism and World Economy influenced Lenin, who borrowed from it in his larger and better known work, Imperialism. Nevertheless, he and Lenin often had hot disputes on issues and Bukharins closeness with the European Left. Bukharin developed an interest in the works of Austrian Marxists and non-Marxist economic theorists, such as Aleksandr Bogdanov, also while in Vienna in 1913, he helped the Georgian Bolshevik Joseph Stalin write an article, Marxism and the National Question, at Lenins request. In October 1916, while based in New York City, he edited the newspaper Novy Mir with Leon Trotsky, when Trotsky arrived in New York in January 1917, Bukharin was the first to greet him. At the news of the Russian Revolution of February 1917, exiled revolutionaries from around the world began to back to the homeland. Trotsky left New York on March 27,1917, sailing for St. Petersburg, Bukharin left New York in early April and returned to Russia by way of Japan, arriving in Moscow in early May 1917. Politically, the Bolsheviks in Moscow remained a minority to the Mensheviks

4.
Mikhail Tomsky
–
Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky was a factory worker, trade unionist and Bolshevik leader. He was the Soviet leader of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, Tomsky attempted to form a trade union at his factory in St. Petersburg resulting in his dismissal. His labour activities radicalized him politically and led him to become a socialist and join the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904, born in Kolpino, Saint Petersburg Governorate in a lower-middle-class family of Russian ethnicity, Tomsky moved to Estonia and was involved in the 1905 Revolution. He helped form the Revel Soviet of Workers Deputies and the Revel Union of Metal Workers, Tomsky was arrested and deported to Siberia. He escaped and returned to St. Petersburg where he became president of the Union of Engravers and Chromolithographers. Tomsky was arrested in 1908 and then exiled to France, but returned to Russia in 1909 where he was arrested for his political activities. He was freed by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution in 1917 and he was elected to the Central Committee in March 1919, to its Orgburo in 1921 and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in April 1922. Tomsky was an ally of Nikolai Bukharin and Alexey Rykov, who led the wing of the Communist Party in the 1920s. Tomsky was put in charge of the Soviet chemical industry, a position which he occupied until 1930, Tomsky headed the State Publishing House from May 1932 until August 1936, when he was accused of terrorist connections during the First Moscow Trial of Zinoviev and Kamenev. Rather than face arrest by the NKVD, Tomsky committed suicide by gunshot in his dacha in Bolshevo and he was posthumously accused of high treason and other crimes during the third show trial of Bukharin, Rykov and others. The Soviet government cleared Tomsky of all charges during perestroika in 1988, Bolshevik Ideology and the Ethics of Soviet labor. Politicheckie deyateli Rossii 1917, Biograficheskij slovar, tucker, Memoir of a Stalin Biographer Works by or about Mikhail Tomsky at Internet Archive Tomsky Archive Marxists Internet Archive The trade unions, the party and the state a pamphlet by Tomsky

5.
Mikhail Lashevich
–
Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich, also known under the name Gaskovich, was a Soviet military and party leader, and member of Bolshevik Russian Social Democratic Labour Party since 1901. After the October Revolution he held various military, party. Once Joseph Stalin started to rise to power, Lashevich sided with Leon Trotsky, as a result, he was removed from central posts and sent to Kharbin to serve as deputy chairman of the Chinese Eastern Railway. In 1927, at the 15th Congress of the VKP, he was expelled from the Party, in 1928, after he renounced from opposition, his party membership was restored. In August 1928 he was reported to have been arrested by Chinese authorities in connection with the Barga uprising at Hulunbuir, some claim that he committed suicide, others claim he died in car accident

6.
Lev Kamenev
–
Lev Borisovich Kamenev, born Rozenfeld, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev was the brother-in-law of Leon Trotsky. He served briefly as the equivalent of the first head of state of Soviet Russia in 1917, Joseph Stalin viewed him as a source of discontent and a source of opposition to his own leadership. After Kamenev fell out of favour, Stalin had him executed on 25 August 1936, aged 53, Lev Borisovich Rozenfeld was born in Moscow, the son of a Jewish railway worker and a Russian Orthodox mother. His father used the wealth he earned in the building of the Baku-Batumi railway to pay for an education for Lev. He went to the boys Gymnasium in Tiflis, Georgia and attended Moscow University, Rozenfeld became politically active during university and was arrested in 1902, ending his formal education. From that point on, he worked as a professional revolutionary and he adopted Kamenev as his revolutionary surname. In the early 1900s, he married Olga Bronstein, a fellow Marxist, the couple had two sons together. Kamenev joined the Communists in 1901 and he took a brief trip abroad in 1902, meeting Russian social democratic leaders living in exile, including Vladimir Lenin, whose adherent and close associate he became. He also visited Paris and met the Iskra group who published the newspaper. He went back to London to attend the 5th RSDLP Party Congress, where he was elected to the partys Central Committee and the Bolshevik Center, in May 1907, but was arrested upon his return to Russia. After Kamenev was released from prison in 1908, he and his family went abroad later in the year to help Lenin edit the Bolshevik magazine Proletariy. After Lenins split with another senior Bolshevik leader, Alexander Bogdanov, in mid-1908, Kamenev and they helped him expel Bogdanov and his Otzovist followers from the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP in mid-1909. In January 1910 Leninists, followers of Bogdanov, and various Menshevik factions held a meeting of the partys Central Committee in Paris, Kamenev and Zinoviev were dubious about the idea, but were willing to give it a try under pressure from conciliator Bolsheviks like Victor Nogin. Lenin was adamantly opposed to re-unification, but was outvoted within the Bolshevik leadership, the meeting reached a tentative agreement. As one of its provisions, Trotskys Vienna-based Pravda was designated as a central organ. Kamenev, Trotskys brother-in-law, was added to Pravdas editorial board as a representative of the Bolsheviks in this process, the unification attempts failed in August 1910, when Kamenev resigned from the board amid mutual recriminations. After the failure of the attempt, Kamenev continued working for Proletariy

7.
Yevgeni Preobrazhensky
–
Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky was a Russian revolutionary and economist. Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky was born in Bolkhov, Oryol Governorate, Russia on 15 February 1886 and his father was the son of a Orthodox priest who taught for seven years in a zemstvo school before his ordination in 1883. Following his appointment as a parish priest in Bolkhov in the summer of 1883 and it was in that school that Yevgeni was first educated. In an autobiography written for the Great Russian Encyclopedia, he recalled both a religious and an intellectually oriented upbringing, as well as an early loathing of inequality and he was an early and active reader. After leaving his fathers school, Preobrazhensky spent two years attending the state-operated Bolkhov public school. He subsequently left the town to attend the classically oriented gymnasium in the capital of Oryol. Preobrazhenskys philosophical rebelliousness brought him conflict with his priestly father. The estrangement between father and son would last for decades, influenced by the Communist Manifesto and another work by Frederick Engels, Preobrazhensky cast his lot with the latter organisation, believing its approach to be scientifically based. Together with two friends, Preobrazhensky declared his allegiance to the RSDLP late in 1903 and was accepted into the illegal organisation two or three months later. During the summer prior to his eighth and final year at the Orël gymnasium, periodic meetings were held in the neighboring forest. In the middle of October 1905, Preobrazhensky traveled to Moscow with the approval of the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP, there he was promoted to the position of chief propagandist for the urban Presnensky raion, thereby entering national politics as a party activist. From autumn 1909 Preobrazhensky was a member of the Bolshevik Party bureau in Irkutsk, from March 1917 he was a delegate on the Chita Soviet. At the 6th Congress of the Bolshevik Party, beginning near the end of July 1917, from January 1918, a candidate member of the Ural Provincial Committee of the Bolshevik Party. As President of the Presidium of the Ural Regional Committee from May 1918, in 1918, Preobrazhensky joined the Left Communists faction opposing the draconian peace with Germany established by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. It was at time that Preobrazhensky became closely affiliated with Nikolai Bukharin. Preobrazhensky was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party at its 9th Congress. He was at the time elected to the RKPs three member secretariat. Through the 1920s he was a leading Soviet Economist, developing the plan for industrialisation of the country and he co-wrote the book The ABC of Communism with Nikolai Bukharin, who would strongly disagree with him on the industrialization issue

8.
Leonid Serebryakov
–
Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov was a Russian politician and Bolshevik victim of Joseph Stalins Great Purge. Born at Samara, Serebryakov was originally a metalworker, in 1905 he joined the Bolsheviks, for which he actively campaigned. After the Russian Revolution he climbed to the ranks in the Communist Party. In 1919 he became a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, together with Nikolai Krestinsky, the three secretaries supported Leon Trotsky when he had a dispute with Lenin over the trade unions. At the Tenth Party Congress in March 1921, Lenins faction won a victory on this dispute, and Serebryakov. Afterwards he worked with Stalin on the Military Council of the Southern Front during the Russian Civil War, after Lenins death he joined the Left Opposition of Leon Trotsky. Eventually this led to his downfall, in 1936 he was arrested for alleged membership of a terrorist Trotskyite organization, while Serebryakov was under arrest, his prosecutor Andrey Vyshinsky misappropriated his house and money. During the second Moscow Show Trial in January 1937, Serebryakov was sentenced to death after a confession by torture. He was married to the writer Galina Serebryakova, interview with Zorya Serebryakova, WSWS. org,27 February 2014

9.
Vladimir Lenin
–
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino

10.
Alexei Rykov
–
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician most prominent as Premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, and after it split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903 and he played an active part in the 1905 Russian Revolution. During the Russian Civil War, Rykov oversaw the implementation of the War Communism economic policy, after Lenin was incapacitated by his third stroke in March 1923 Rykov—along with Lev Kamenev—was elected by the Sovnarkom to serve as Deputy Chairman to Lenin. While both Rykov and Kamenev were Lenins deputies, Kamenev was the acting Premier of the Soviet Union, on 21 December 1930 he was removed from the Politburo. From 1931-37 Rykov served as Peoples Commissar of Communications on the Council he formerly chaired, on 17 February 1937—at a meeting of the Central Committee—he was arrested with Nikolai Bukharin. In March 1938 both were found guilty of treason and executed, Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was born on 25 February 1881 in Saratov, Russia. His parents were peasants from the village of Kukarka, alexeis father, Ivan Illych Rykov, a farmer whose work had led the family to settle in Saratov died in 1889 from cholera while working in Merv. His widowed stepmother could not care for him, so he was cared for by his sister, Klavdiya Ivanovna Rykova. In 1892 he began his first year of school in Saratov. An outstanding student, he started school at age 13. He excelled in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences, at 15 Rykov stopped attending church and confession, and renounced his faith. He graduated from school in 1900 and enrolled at the University of Kazan to study law. Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898 and supported its Bolshevik faction when the party split into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at its Second Congress in 1903. He worked as a Bolshevik agent in Moscow and Saint Petersburg and he was elected a member of the Partys Central Committee at its 3rd Congress in London in 1905 and its 4th Congress in Copenhagen in 1906. He was elected member of the Central Committee at the 5th Congress in London. He spent 1910-11 exiled in France, and in 1912 expressed reproach towards Lenins proposal that the Bolsheviks become an independent party, the dispute was interrupted by Rykovs exile to Siberia for revolutionary activity. Rykov returned from Siberia after the February Revolution of 1917 and re-joined the Bolsheviks and he became a member of the Petrograd Soviet and the Moscow Soviet. At the 6th Congress of the Bolshevik Party in July–August 1917 he was elected to the Central Committee, during the October Revolution of 1917, he was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee in Moscow

11.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi

12.
Marxism
–
It originates from the mid-to-late 19th century works of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As the contradiction becomes apparent to the proletariat through the alienation of labor, Marxism has since developed into different branches and schools of thought, and there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has been adopted by a number of academics and theorists working in various disciplines. Critics have taken issue with particular Marxist claims or accused Marxism as a whole of being inconsistent, refuted based on new information. The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of the material conditions, the economic system and these social relations form a base and superstructure. As forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient, from forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution and these inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between the minority who own the means of production, and the vast majority of the population who produce goods, the socialist system would succeed capitalism as humanitys mode of production through workers revolution. According to Marxism, especially arising from crisis theory, socialism is a historical necessity, in a socialist society private property, in the form of the means of production, would be replaced by co-operative ownership. A socialist economy would not base production on the creation of private profits, Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand. The historical materialist theory of history analyses the causes of societal development. All constituent features of a society are assumed to stem from economic activity, the base and superstructure metaphor portrays the totality of social relations by which humans produce and re-produce their social existence. According to Marx, The sum total of the forces of production accessible to men determines the condition of society and this relationship is reflexive, at first the base gives rise to the superstructure and remains the foundation of a form of social organization. As Friedrich Engels clarified, The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles, accordingly, Marx designated human history as encompassing four stages of development in relations of production. Primitive Communism, as in tribal societies. Slave Society, a development of tribal to city-state, aristocracy is born, feudalism, aristocrats are the ruling class, merchants evolve into capitalists. Capitalism, capitalists are the class, who create and employ the proletariat. According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, the content of Marxism was Marxs economic doctrine

13.
Menshevik
–
The dispute originated at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, ostensibly over minor issues of party organization. Neither side held a consistent majority over the course of the congress, Lenins formulation required the party member to be a member of one of the partys organizations, whereas Martovs only stated that he should work under the guidance of a party organization. Martovs proposal was accepted by the majority of the delegates and that was also the reason behind the naming of the factions. Despite the outcome of the congress, the years saw the Mensheviks gathering considerable support among regular Social Democrats. In 1906, at the 4th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, on the other hand, numerous disagreements about alliances and strategy emerged. The two factions kept their separate structures and continued to operate separately, both believed that the working class had to contribute to this revolution. In the event of a revolution, this was meant to lead to a dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, the Mensheviks came to argue for predominantly legal methods and trade union work, while the Bolsheviks favoured armed violence. Some Mensheviks left the party after the defeat of 1905 and joined legal opposition organisations, after a while, Lenins patience wore out with their compromising and in 1908 he called these Mensheviks liquidationists. The Menshevik faction split further in 1914 at the beginning of World War I, most Mensheviks opposed the war, but a vocal minority supported it in terms of national defense. They called for a revolution and transfer of all power to the Soviets. In March–April 1917, the Menshevik leadership conditionally supported the newly formed liberal Russian Provisional Government, from then on, the Mensheviks had at least one representative in the Provisional Government until it was overthrown by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution of 1917. With Mensheviks and Bolsheviks diverging, Mensheviks and non-factional social democrats returning from exile in Europe, others, like Alexandra Kollontai, joined the Bolsheviks. A significant number, including Leon Trotsky and Adolf Joffe, joined the non-factional Petrograd-based anti-war group called Mezhraiontsy, a small but influential group of social democrats associated with Maxim Gorkys newspaper Novaya Zhizn refused to join either party. The Mensheviks got just 3. 3% of the national vote,41. 7% of their support came from the Transcaucasus. In Georgia about 75% voted for them, the right wing of the Menshevik party supported actions against the Bolsheviks, while the left wing, the majority of the Mensheviks at that point, supported the Left in the ensuing Russian Civil War. However, Martovs leftist Menshevik faction refused to break with the wing of the party, resulting in their press being sometimes banned. The Mensheviks opposed war communism, and in 1919 suggested an alternative programme, during World War I, some anti-war Mensheviks had formed a group called Menshevik-Internationalists. They were active around the newspaper Novaya Zhizn and took part in the Mezhraiontsy formation. After July 1917 events in Russia, they broke with the Menshevik majority that supported continued war with Germany, the Mensheviks-Internationalists became the hub of the Russian Social Democratic Workers Party

14.
Revolutionary socialist
–
The term revolutionary socialism refers to socialist tendencies that subscribe to the doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to affect structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism. Revolutionary socialists believe such a state of affairs is a precondition for establishing socialism, Revolutionary socialism encompasses multiple political and social movements that may define revolution differently from one another. Revolutionary socialism also includes non-Marxist movements like anarchism, revolutionary syndicalism and it is used in contrast to the reformism of social democracy, which is not anti-capitalist in form. Revolutionary socialism is opposed to social movements that seek to ameliorate the economic. Revolutionary socialism also exists in contrast to the concept of revolutionary groups seizing power without first achieving mass support. Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle, the proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie. The Communists fight for the attainment of the aims, for the enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class, The Communists disdain to conceal their views. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution,24 years after the Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels admitted that in developed countries labour may attain its goal by peaceful means. Marxist scholar Adam Schaff argued that Marx, Engels and Lenin have expressed such view on many occasions, the reformist viewpoint was introduced into Marxist thought by Eduard Bernstein, one of the leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 1896 to 1898, Bernstein published a series of articles entitled Probleme des Sozialismus and these articles led to a debate on revisionism in the SPD, and can be seen as the origins of a reformist trend within Marxism. In 1900, Rosa Luxemburg wrote Social Reform or Revolution, a polemic against Bernsteins position, the work of reforms, Luxemburg argued, could only be carried on, in the framework of the social form created by the last revolution. From the first appearance of class societies, having class struggle as the content of their history. Here is the point and end of every historic period…In modern times. Vladimir Lenin attacked Bernstein’s position in his What is to be Done, when Bernstein first put forward his ideas the majority of the SPD rejected them. The 1899 Congress of the SPD reaffirmed the Erfurt programme, as did the 1901 congress, the 1903 congress denounced revisionist efforts. However, on 4 August 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted for the war budget, while the French

15.
Minsk
–
Minsk (Belarusian, Мінск pronounced, is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Nyamiha rivers. It is the centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As the national capital, Minsk has an administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region. In 2013, it had a population of 2,002,600, the earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century, when it was noted as a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers, in 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499, from 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodeship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, from 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union. Minsk will host the 2019 European Games, Minsk is located on the southeastern slope of the Minsk Hills, a region of rolling hills running from the southwest to the northeast – that is, to Lukomskaye Lake in northwestern Belarus. The average altitude above sea level is 220 metres, the physical geography of Minsk was shaped over the two most recent ice ages. There are six smaller rivers within the city limits, all part of the Black Sea basin, Minsk is in the area of mixed forests typical of most of Belarus. Pinewood and mixed forests border the edge of the city, especially in the north, some of the forests were preserved as parks as the city grew. The city was built on the hills, which allowed for defensive fortifications. Minsk has a warm summer humid continental climate, owing to its location between the strong influence of the moist air of the Atlantic Ocean and the dry air of the Eurasian landmass. Its weather is unstable and tends to change often, the average January temperature is −4.5 °C, while the average July temperature is 18.5 °C. The lowest temperature was recorded on 17 January 1940, at −40 °C and the warmest on 29 July 1936 at 35 °C and this results in frequent fogs, common in the autumn and spring. Minsk receives annual precipitation of 690 millimetres, of one third falls during the cold period. Throughout the year, most winds are westerly and northwesterly, bringing cool, similar climatic regimes are found in Stockholm, Sweden and in Halifax, Canada. The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Centre of Radioactive and Environmental Control, during 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons

16.
Belarus
–
Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

17.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup détat and was abolished on 6 November 1991 on Russian territory. The highest body within the CPSU was the party Congress, which convened every five years, when the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Orgburo. The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or some of the three offices concurrently—but never all three at the same time. The CPSU, according to its party statute, adhered to Marxism–Leninism, a based on the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The party pursued state socialism, under which all industries were nationalized, a number of causes contributed to CPSUs loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some historians have written that Gorbachevs policy of glasnost was the root cause, Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state, was established by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Immediately after the Revolution, the new, Lenin-led government implemented socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates, in this context, in 1918, RSDLP became Russian Communist Party and remained so until 1997. Lenin supported world revolution he sought peace with the Central Powers. The treaty was voided after the Allied victory in World War I, in 1921, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and recovery from the Civil War. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Union, on 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, after emerging victorious from a power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin obtained full control of the party and Stalinism was installed as the only ideology of the party. The partys official name was All-Union Communist Party in 1925, Stalins political purge greatly affected the partys configuration, as many party members were executed or sentenced for slave labour. Happening during the timespan of the Great Purge, fascism had ascened to power in Italy, seeing this as a potential threat, the Party actively sought to form collective security alliances with Anti-fascist western powers such as France and Britain

18.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

19.
October Revolution
–
It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants

20.
Russian Revolution
–
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations

21.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700

22.
White movement
–
Remnants and continuations of the movement, some of which only had narrow support, endured within the wider White émigré community until after the fall of Communism. The Whites had the aim of bringing about law and order and the salvation of Russia, fighting against traitors, barbarians. They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White-controlled territory, overall, the White Army was nationalistic, rejected ethnic particularism and separatism. The White Army generally believed in a united multinational Russia, amongst White Army members, anti-Semitism was widespread. Western sponsors expressed dismay at this, especially as the Bolsheviks had prohibited anti-Semitism, many of the White leaders were conservative, accepting autocracy while remaining suspicious of politics. Aside from being anti-Bolshevik and patriotic, the Whites had no set ideology or main leader, the White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state, the so-called Supreme Governor of Russia, but this post was prominent only under the leadership of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. The movement had no set plan for foreign policy, Whites differed on policies toward Germany, the Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies, and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment. White-movement leaders such as Anton Denikin advocated for Russians to create their own government, Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk, acknowledged by most other White leaders, only for it to fall with the loss of his armies. Some warlords who were aligned with the White movement, such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg, did not acknowledge any authority, consequently, the White movement had no set political leanings, members could be monarchists, republicans, rightists, Kadets, etc. Moreover, other parties supported the anti-Bolshevik White Army, among them the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. But depending on the time and place, those White Army supporters might also exchange right-wing allegiance for allegiance to the Red Army, the Volunteer Army in South Russia became the most prominent and the largest of the various and disparate White forces. Starting off as a small and well-organized military in January 1918, the Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army, and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began. In late February 1918,4,000 soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov-on-Don due to the advance of the Red Army, in 1919 the Don Cossacks joined and the Army began drafting Ukrainian peasants. In that year, between May and October, the Volunteer Army grew from 64,000 to 150,000 soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart. The White Armys rank-and-file comprised active anti-Bolsheviks, such as Cossacks, nobles, the White movement had access to various naval forces, both sea-going and river-based. Note especially the use of the Black Sea Fleet, aerial forces available to the Whites included the Slavo-British Aviation Corps. The Russian ace Alexander Kazakov operated within this unit, the White movements leaders and first members came mainly from the ranks of military officers. Many came from outside the nobility, such as generals Mikhail Alekseev, the White generals never mastered administration, they often utilized prerevolutionary functionaries or military officers with monarchististic inclinations for administering White-controlled regions

23.
Russian Civil War
–
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine, the remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934, there were an estimated 7,000, 000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen, many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war. Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917, Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it became apparent that an army composed solely of workers would be far too small. Former Tsarist officers were utilized as military specialists, sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty, at the start of the war three-quarters of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno, some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers organizations in the cities. The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917 and they had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks, hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle, the British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom, there were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks

24.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states

25.
Alexander Bogdanov
–
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov was a Russian and Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity. In the first decade of the Soviet Union, he was an opponent of the government from a Marxist perspective. Bogdanov received training in medicine and psychiatry and his scientific interests ranged from the universal systems theory to the possibility of human rejuvenation through blood transfusion. He invented an original philosophy called “tectology, ” now regarded as a forerunner of systems theory and he was also an economist, culture theorist, science fiction writer, and political activist. Alyaksandr Malinovsky was born in Sokółka, Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire, into a teachers family. He attended the Gymnasium at Tula, which he compared to a barracks or prison and he was awarded a gold medal when he graduated. Upon completion of the gymnasium, Bogdanov was admitted to the Natural Science Department of Moscow University. In his autobiography, Bogdanov reported that, while studying at Moscow University, he joined the Union Council of Regional Societies, the occasion of his arrest and exile is as follows. The head of the Moscow Okhrana used an informant to acquire the names of members of the Union Council of Regional Societies, punishment of a few of the students was arbitrary and unfair that the Union Council requested a fair reexamination of the issue. That very night, the Okhrana arrested all the students on the list mentioned above - including Bogdanov - were arrested, expelled from the university, here he met and married Natalya Bogdanovna Korsak, who, as a woman, had been refused entrance to the university. She was working as a nurse for Rudnev, Malinovsky adopted the nom de plume that he used when he wrote his major theoretical works and his novels from her patronym. Alongside Bazarov and Ivan Skvortsov-Stepanov he became a tutor in a study circle. This was organised in the Tula Armament Factory by Ivan Saveliev, during this period, he wrote his Brief course of economic science which was published – subject to many modifications made for the benefit of the censor – only in 1897. He later said that this experience of student-led education gave him his first lesson in proletarian culture, in autumn 1895, he resumed his medical studies at the University of Kharkiv but still spent much time in Tula. He gained access to the works of Lenin in 1896, particularly the latters critique of Peter Berngardovich Struve, in 1899, he graduated as a medical doctor and published his next work, Basic elements of the historical perspective on nature. However, because of his views, he was also arrested by the Tsars police, spent six months in prison. Bogdanov dates his support for Bolshevism from autumn of 1903, early in 1904, Martin Lyadov was sent by the Bolsheviks in Geneva to seek out supporters in Russia. He found a group of revolutionaries in Tver

26.
Proletariat
–
The proletariat is a term for the class of wage-earners, in a capitalist society, whose only possession of significant material value is their labor-power, a member of such a class is a proletarian. The proletarii constituted a class of Roman citizens owning little or no property. This assembly, which met on the Campus Martius to discuss public policy issues, was also used as a means of designating military duties demanded of Roman citizens. The top infantry class assembled with full arms and armor, the two classes brought arms and armor, but less and lesser, the fourth class only spears. In voting, the cavalry and top class were enough to decide an issue, as voting started at the top. As a result of the Marian reforms initiated in 107 B. C. by the Roman general Gaius Marius, proletarians are wage-workers, while some refer to those who receive salaries as the salariat. For Marx, however, wage labor may involve getting a salary rather than a wage per se, intermediate positions are possible, where some wage-labor for an employer combines with self-employment. Socialist parties have often struggled over the question of whether they should seek to organize and represent all the lower classes, according to Marxism, capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. Instead of hiring those means of production, they themselves get hired by capitalists and work for them and these goods or services become the property of the capitalist, who sells them at the market. Surplus value is the difference between the wealth that the proletariat produces through its work, and the wealth it consumes to survive and to provide labor to the capitalist companies. A part of the value is used to renew or increase the means of production, either in quantity or quality. What remains is consumed by the capitalist class, the commodities that proletarians produce and capitalists sell are valued for the amount of labor embodied in them. The same goes for the labor power itself, it is valued, not for the amount of wealth it produces. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through labor applied to natural resources, prole drift, short for proletarian drift, is a term that suggests the tendency in advanced industrialized societies for everything inexorably to become proletarianized, or to become commonplace. This trend is attributed to mass production, mass selling, mass communication, examples include best-seller lists, films and music that must appeal to the masses and shopping malls. Why workers can change the world, hal Draper, Karl Marxs Theory of Revolution, Vol.2, The Politics of Social Classes

27.
Anti-imperialism
–
A less common usage is by isolationists who oppose an interventionist foreign policy. The phrase gained a wide currency after the Second World War, some anti-imperialist groups who opposed the United States supported the power of the Soviet Union, such as in Guevarism, while in Maoism, this was criticized as social imperialism. In the Arab and Muslim world, the term is used in the context of anti-Zionist nationalist. In the late 1870s, the term Imperialism was introduced to the English language by opponents of the imperial policies of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. It was shortly appropriated by supporters of such as Joseph Chamberlain. For some, imperialism designated a policy of idealism and philanthropy, others alleged that it was characterized by political self-interest, John A. Hobson and Lenin added a more theoretical macroeconomic connotation to the term. Many theoreticians on the left have followed either or both in emphasizing the structural or systemic character of imperialism. As the application of the term has expanded, its meaning has shifted along five distinct but often parallel axes, the moral, the economic, the systemic, the cultural, and the temporal. Those changes reflect—among other shifts in sensibility—a growing unease with the fact of power, specifically, J. A. Hobson said that domestic social reforms could cure the international disease of imperialism by removing its economic foundation. Hobson theorized that state intervention through taxation could boost broader consumption, create wealth, conversely, should the state not intervene, rentiers would generate socially negative wealth that fostered imperialism and protectionism. An early use of the term anti-imperialist occurred after the United States entered the Spanish–American War in 1898, most activists supported the war itself but opposed the annexation of new territory, especially the Philippines. The Anti-Imperialist League was founded on June 15,1898 in Boston, in opposition of the acquisition of the Philippines, the anti-imperialists opposed the expansion because they believed imperialism violated the credo of republicanism, especially the need for consent of the governed. British anti-imperialism emerged in the 1890s, especially in the Liberal Party, the key impetus around 1900 came from public disgust with the British failures and atrocities connected with the Second Boer War. The War was fought against the Afrikaners, who were Dutch immigrants who had built new nations in South Africa, opposition to the Second Boer War was modest when the war began, and was always less widespread than support for it, let alone the prevailing indifference. However, influential groups formed immediately and ineffectually against the war, including the South African Conciliation Committee, much of the opposition in Britain came from the Liberal party. Intellectuals and activists Britain based in the Socialist, labour, and Fabian movements generally oppose imperialism, and John Hobson, after the Boer war, opponents of imperialism turn their attention to the British colonies in Africa and Asia. By the 1920s, the government was sponsoring large-scale exhibits promoting imperialism, notably the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in London, some intellectuals use the opportunity to criticize imperialism as a policy. Moderately active anti-imperial movements emerged in Canada and Australia, the French-Canadians were hostile to the British expansion, while, in Australia it was the Irish Catholics who were opposed

28.
Anti-revisionism
–
In the communist lexicon, anti-revisionism is opposition to attempts to revise, modify, or abandon the fundamentals of revolutionary theory and practice. In this view, reformism within communism is rejected as representing dangerous concessions to communisms adversaries, because different political trends trace the historical roots of revisionism to different eras and leaders, there is significant disagreement today as to what constitutes anti-revisionism. Therefore, modern groups which describe themselves as anti-revisionist fall into several categories, in addition, other groups uphold various less well-known historical leaders, such as Enver Hoxha. Historically, anti-revisionists presented a critique of the official Communist Parties from the left for having abandoned orthodox Marxism–Leninism, the terminological disagreement can be confusing because different versions of a left-right political spectrum are used. Anti-revisionists consider themselves the ultimate leftists on a spectrum from communism on the left to imperialist capitalism on the right, but Stalinism is often labeled rightist within the communist spectrum and left communism leftist. In the wake of Khrushchevs speech to the 20th Congress of the C. P. S. U, in the 1970s the anti-revisionist movement expanded and diversified to encompass those communists who rejected a pro-Soviet orientation for one aligned either with Chinese or Albanian positions. Self-proclaimed anti-revisionists firmly oppose the reforms initiated in Communist countries by leaders like Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union and they generally refer to such reforms and states as state capitalist and social-imperialist. A short time later, anti-revisionist groups were divided by the Sino-Albanian split. Many such organizations may call themselves Maoist, Marxist–Leninist or even just simply revolutionary communist, however, many if not most Hoxhaists and Maoists are critically supportive of North Korea on grounds of Anti-imperialism. Anti-revisionists aligned with Enver Hoxha and the line of the Albanian party of labor argue that Mao Zedong thought is itself a form of revisionism, Hoxhaists also argue that the theory of New Democracy and Peoples War were revisionist and anti-scientific. The Hoxhaist camp came into existence during the Sino-Albanian split. S

29.
Communism
–
Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917 October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed. The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence movements

30.
Communist state
–
A communist state is a state that is usually administered and governed by a single party representing the proletariat, guided by Marxist–Leninist philosophy, with the aim of achieving communism. The term Communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, Communist states can be administered by a single, centralised party apparatus, although countries such as the DPRK have several parties. These parties usually are Marxist–Leninist or some variation thereof, with the aim of achieving socialism. Marx saw that in his time, the new nation states were characterized by increasingly intensified class contradiction between the capitalist class and the working class it ruled over. The state ruled by the class during the transition into classless society is called the dictatorship of the proletariat. Vladimir Lenin created revolutionary vanguard theory in an attempt to expand on the concept, during the 20th century, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state was in Russia in 1917. In 1922, it joined other territories of the empire to become the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. After World War II, the Soviet Army occupied much of Eastern Europe, most Communist states in Eastern Europe were allied with the USSR, except for Yugoslavia which declared itself non-aligned. In 1949, after a war against Japanese occupation and a war resulting in a Communist victory. Communist states were established in Cuba, Vietnam, Laos. A Communist state was established in North Korea, although it withdrew from the Communist movement. In 1989, the Communist states in Eastern Europe collapsed under pressure during a wave of non-violent movements which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, the existing Communist states in the world are in China, Cuba, Laos, Communist states share similar institutions, which are organized on the premise that the Communist party is a vanguard of the proletariat and represents the long-term interests of the people. The doctrine of democratic centralism, which was developed by Vladimir Lenin as a set of principles to be used in the affairs of the communist party, is extended to society at large. When used within a party, democratic centralism is meant to prevent factionalism. When applied to a state, democratic centralism creates a one-party system. The constitutions of most socialist states describe their system as a form of democracy. Thus, they recognize the sovereignty of the people as embodied in a series of parliamentary institutions

31.
One-party state
–
All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. One-party states explain themselves through various methods, most often, proponents of a one-party state argue that the existence of separate parties runs counter to national unity. Others argue that the one party is the vanguard of the people, the Soviet government argued that multiple parties represented the class struggle, which was absent in Soviet society, and so the Soviet Union only had one party, the Communist Party. Some one-party states only outlaw opposition parties, while allowing allied parties to exist as part of a permanent coalition such as a popular front. However, these parties are largely or completely subservient to the ruling party, examples of this are the Peoples Republic of China under the United Front, or the National Front in former East Germany. Others may allow non-party members to run for seats, as was the case with Taiwans Tangwai movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Within their own countries, dominant parties ruling over one-party states are referred to simply as the Party. One-party systems often arise from decolonization because one party has had a dominant role in liberation or in independence struggles. One-party states are often, but not always, considered to be authoritarian or totalitarian, however, not all authoritarian or totalitarian states operate based on one-party rule. Some, especially absolute monarchies and certain military dictatorships, have all political parties illegal. The term communist state is used in the West to apply to states in which the ruling party subscribes to a form of Marxism–Leninism. While the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the constitution, no party is permitted to campaign or run candidates for election, the party was conceived by the original Black American settlers and their descendants who referred to themselves as Americo-Liberians. Initially, its ideology was influenced by that of the Whig Party in the United States. Over time it developed into a powerful Masonic Order that ruled every aspect of Liberian society for well over a century until it was overthrown in 1980, while the True Whig Party still exists today, its influence has substantially declined

32.
Popular front
–
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, usually made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as social-democratic, Popular fronts are larger in scope than united fronts. During this time in France, the front populaire referred to the alliance of political parties aimed at resisting Fascism, not all coalitions who use the term popular front meet the definition for popular fronts, and not all popular fronts use the term popular front in their name. The same applies to united fronts, the Popular Fronts thus formed proved to be successful in forming the government in France, and Spain, and also China. It was not a success elsewhere. The Popular Front policy of the Comintern was introduced in 1934, the new policy was signalled in a Pravda article of May 1934, which commented favourably on socialist-Communist collaboration. In June 1934, Léon Blums Socialist Party signed a pact of united action with the French Communist Party, in May 1935, France and the Soviet Union signed a defensive alliance and in August 1935, the 7th World Congress of the Comintern officially endorsed the Popular Front strategy. In the elections of May 1936, the Popular Front won a majority of parliamentary seats, in Italy, the Comintern advised an alliance between the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party, but this was rejected by the Socialists. The CPUSA also offered support to Franklin Roosevelts New Deal in this period, the Popular Front period in the USA saw the CP taking a very patriotic and populist line, later called Browderism. Many Communist party members quit the party in disgust at this compromise between Hitler and Stalin, leon Trotsky and his far-left supporters roundly criticised the Popular Front strategy. Trotsky believed that only united fronts could ultimately be progressive, and this view is now common to most Trotskyist groups. Left communist groups also oppose popular fronts, but they came to oppose united fronts as well, in a book written in 1977, the Eurocommunist leader Santiago Carrillo offered a positive assessment of the Popular Front. For example, East Germany was ruled by a National Front of all anti-fascist parties, at legislative elections, voters were presented with a single list of candidates from all parties. In practice, however, only the Communist Party had any real power, by ensuring that Communists dominated the candidate lists, it effectively predetermined the composition of the legislature. All parties in the front had to accept the role of the Communist Party as a condition of being allowed to exist. By the 1950s, the non-Communist parties had pushed out their more courageous members and had taken over by fellow travelers willing to do the Communists bidding. The Peoples Republic of Chinas United Front is perhaps the best known example of a popular front in modern times. In the Republics of the Soviet Union, between around 1988 and 1992, the term Popular Front had quite a different meaning and it referred to movements led by members of the liberal-minded intelligentsia, in some republics small and peripheral, in others broad-based and influential

33.
Socialist patriotism
–
Socialist patriotism refers to a form of civic patriotism promoted by Marxist–Leninist movements. Socialist patriotism is commonly advocated directly alongside proletarian internationalism, with communist parties regarding the two concepts as compatible with each other, the concept has been attributed by Soviet writers to Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Lenin separated patriotism into what he defined as proletarian, socialist patriotism from bourgeois nationalism, Lenin believed that nations subjected to imperial rule had the right to seek national liberation from imperial rule. Socialist patriotism was promoted by Joseph Stalin, Stalinists claimed that socialist patriotism would serve both national interest and international socialist interest, while promoting socialist patriotism for the Soviet Union as a whole, Stalin repressed nationalist sentiments in fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. However, according to some academics Soviet patriotism had in practice Russian nationalist overtones, the Communist Party of China and the government of China advocate socialist patriotism. The Communist Party of China describes the policy of socialist patriotism as the following, at the first level, individuals should subordinate their personal interests to the interests of the state. At the second level, individuals should subordinate their personal destiny to the destiny of our socialist system, at the third level, individuals should subordinate their personal future to the future of our communist cause. The PRC portrays the Communist government as the embodiment of the will of the Chinese people, the constitution of China states that China is a multi-ethnic society and that the state is opposed to national chauvinism and specifies Han chauvinism in particular. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany officially had socialist patriotism within its party statutes, the SED expanded on this by emphasizing a socialist national consciousness involving a love for the GDR and pride in the achievements of socialism. The Derg and the Peoples Democratic Republic of Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Mariam advocated socialist patriotism, the Derg declared that socialist patriotism meant true love for ones motherland. free from all forms of chauvinism and racialism. Kim Il-sung promoted socialist patriotism while he condemned nationalism in claiming that it destroyed fraternal relations between people because of its exclusivism. In North Korea, socialist patriotism has been described as an ideology meant to serve its own people, be faithful to their working class, the Communist Party of Vietnam and the government of Vietnam advocate socialist patriotism of the Vietnamese people. After the collapse of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1941, the Vietnamese Communist movement since the 1940s fused the policies of proletarian internationalism, the incorporation of Vietnamese patriotism into the Communist Partys agenda fit in with the longstanding Vietnamese struggle against French colonial rule. He had studied in France as a youth where he became an adherent to Marxism-Leninism and he was inspired by the Wilsonian concept of national self-determination The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia endorsed socialist patriotism

34.
Socialist state
–
A socialist state or socialist republic refers to any state that is constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. Aside from the Communist states, a number of states have described their orientation as socialist in their constitutions. In such cases, the system and machinery of government is not specifically structured to pursue the development of socialism. The concept of a socialist state is related to state socialism. Specifically, the state would become an entity for production as opposed to a mechanism for political control. According to Friedrich Engels, Saint-Simon foreshadowed the classical Marxist notion of the development of the state in a socialist society, karl Marx understood the state to be an instrument of the class rule, dominated by the interests of the ruling class in any mode of production. This transitional stage would involve working-class interests dominating government policy, in the manner that capitalist-class interests dominate government policy under capitalism. Karl Marx described the Paris Commune as the prototype for a government of the future. Friedrich Engels noted that all officials, high or low, were only the wages received by other workers. In this way an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up, such a state would be a temporary affair, Engels argued. A new generation, he suggested, brought up in new and free social conditions, the Leninist conception of a socialist state is tied to Vladimir Lenins theory of the revolutionary party and organizational principles of democratic centralism. These ideas were adopted by Vladimir Lenin in 1917 just prior to the October Revolution in Russia and published in The State and Revolution, a central text for many Marxists. Vladimir Lenin argued that as socialism is replaced by communism, the state would wither away as strong centralized control progressively reduces as local communities gain more empowerment, as he put succinctly, So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state, states run by Communist parties that adhere to Marxism–Leninism, or some variation thereof, refer to themselves as socialist states. The Soviet Union was the first to proclaim itself a socialist state in its 1936 Constitution, another well-known example is the Peoples Republic of China, which proclaims itself to be a socialist state in its 1982 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China. In the West, such states are known as communist states. This often includes at least the commanding heights of the economy to be nationalized, usually operated according to a plan of production, at least in the major production and social spheres. These Communist states often dont claim to have achieved socialism in their countries, rather, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea used to be a Marxist–Leninist state

35.
Foco
–
Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s. During two years, the poorly armed escopeteros, at times fewer than 200 men, managed to win victories against Batistas army and police force, the small group finally managed to take Havana after the December 1958 Battle of Santa Clara. This surprising success led to the theory which, inspired by Maos doctrine of peoples war. This theory focused heavily on the notion of vanguardism and on the value of the example. While focalism drew from previous Marxist-Leninist ideas and the Maoist strategy of protracted peoples war, Guevara added that this theory was formulated for developing countries, and that the guerrilleros had to look for support among both the workers and the peasants. In power, Castro sided with the USSR in the 1961 Sino-Soviet split, perhaps accelerated by this divide, the latter man shifted his energies away from Cuba to adventurism, promoting guerrilla focos overseas. Though this method had triumphed in Cuba, Guevara saw it subsequently fail in Africa, laurent-Désiré Kabila put it in practice in Congo. Despite being backed by the Castro regime, Guevaras attempt to forge an insurgency in Bolivia led to his capture, by the mid-1970s, however, Cuba revived and further escalated its previous zeal, directly deploying its military in Africa before the collapse of détente—e. g. Supporting up the MPLA government in Angola, in Argentina, the Peoples Revolutionary Army, led by Roberto Santucho, attempted to create a foco in the Tucumán Province. The attempt failed after the government of Isabel Perón signed in February 1975 the secret presidential decree 261, general Acdel Vilas immediately deployed over 3,000 soldiers, including conscripts from the Fifth Infantry Brigade and two companies of elite commandos. The ERP was quickly defeated, but this campaign marked the beginning of the Dirty War in Argentina. Similarly, Cuba supported four rival guerrilla groups decision to form the URNG coalition of Guatemala in 1982, the strength of an idea Revolution in the Revolution. Che Guevaras Guerrilla Warfare FROM CUBA TO BOLIVIA, GUEVARA’S FOCO THEORY IN PRACTICE - University of Calgary The Functionality of the Foco Theory

Avel Enukidze
–
Avel Safronovich Enukidze was a prominent Old Bolshevik and, at one point, a member of the Soviet Central Committee in Moscow. In 1932, along with Mikhail Kalinin and Vyacheslav Molotov, Enukidze co-signed the infamous Law of Spikelets, soon he was accused of having deliberately diminished Joseph Stalins contributions to the printing press and the

1.
Enukidze attending a session of the 3rd All-Union Congress of Soviets

Mikhail Kalinin
–
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, known familiarly by Soviet citizens as Kalinych, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist–Leninist functionary. He served as head of state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, from 1926, he was a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kalinin was born to a peasant family of et

1.
Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin in 1922

2.
Stalin, Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin (detail of a photo from the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, March 1919). Part of much larger photo showing other Congress members.

Nikolai Bukharin
–
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and prolific author on revolutionary theory. As a young man, he spent six years in exile, working closely with fellow exiles Vladimir Lenin, by late 1924, this had positioned Bukharin favourably as Joseph Stalins chief ally, with Bukharin soon elaborating Stalins ne

1.
Nikolai Bukharin Никола́й Буха́рин

2.
Ivan Bukharin, father of Nikolai

3.
Stalin and Bukharin, c.1928

4.
Nikolai Bukharin

Mikhail Tomsky
–
Mikhail Pavlovich Tomsky was a factory worker, trade unionist and Bolshevik leader. He was the Soviet leader of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions, Tomsky attempted to form a trade union at his factory in St. Petersburg resulting in his dismissal. His labour activities radicalized him politically and led him to become a socialist and j

1.
Tomsky as head of the trade union movement, 1920s

2.
Tomsky (center front) and the All Russian Central Council of Trade Unions members

Mikhail Lashevich
–
Mikhail Mikhailovich Lashevich, also known under the name Gaskovich, was a Soviet military and party leader, and member of Bolshevik Russian Social Democratic Labour Party since 1901. After the October Revolution he held various military, party. Once Joseph Stalin started to rise to power, Lashevich sided with Leon Trotsky, as a result, he was remo

1.
Attending the 8th Party Congress

Lev Kamenev
–
Lev Borisovich Kamenev, born Rozenfeld, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a prominent Soviet politician. He was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Stalin, Kamenev was the brother-in-law of Leon Trotsky. He served briefly as the equivalent of the fir

1.
Lev Kamenev Лев Каменев

2.
Kamenev

3.
Pallbearers Carrying Lenin's Coffin during his funeral, from Paveletsky Rail Terminal to the Labor Temple. Felix Dzerzhinsky at the front with Timofei Sapronov behind him and Lev Kamenev on the left

4.
Kamenev and Lenin at Gorki, 1922

Yevgeni Preobrazhensky
–
Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky was a Russian revolutionary and economist. Yevgeni Alekseyevich Preobrazhensky was born in Bolkhov, Oryol Governorate, Russia on 15 February 1886 and his father was the son of a Orthodox priest who taught for seven years in a zemstvo school before his ordination in 1883. Following his appointment as a parish prie

1.
Е.A. Преображeнский

2.
An advertisement for a hectograph. Preobrazhensky and other Russian revolutionaries frequently reproduced their underground proclamations and leaflets using this simple printing technique.

Leonid Serebryakov
–
Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov was a Russian politician and Bolshevik victim of Joseph Stalins Great Purge. Born at Samara, Serebryakov was originally a metalworker, in 1905 he joined the Bolsheviks, for which he actively campaigned. After the Russian Revolution he climbed to the ranks in the Communist Party. In 1919 he became a member of the Secreta

1.
Leonid Serebryakov Леонид Серебряков

Vladimir Lenin
–
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became

1.
Lenin in 1920

2.
"Volodya", aged four.

3.
Lenin, c. 1887.

4.
Lenin (left) in December 1895 and his wife Nadezhda.

Alexei Rykov
–
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician most prominent as Premier of Russia and the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1929 and 1924 to 1930 respectively. Rykov joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898, and after it split into Bolshevik and Menshevik factions in 1903 and he played an active part

1.
Alexei Rykov Алексей Рыков

2.
Alexei Ivanovich Rykov

3.
Rykov on the cover of Time in 1924

4.
Rykov as Soviet Premier, mid-1920s

Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and b

3.
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter П.

4.
The Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest East Slavic book known, one of many medieval illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Russian National Library.

Marxism
–
It originates from the mid-to-late 19th century works of German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As the contradiction becomes apparent to the proletariat through the alienation of labor, Marxism has since developed into different branches and schools of thought, and there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has been adop

1.
Karl Marx

2.
One of the 20th century's most prominent Marxist academics; the Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe

Menshevik
–
The dispute originated at the Second Congress of the RSDLP, ostensibly over minor issues of party organization. Neither side held a consistent majority over the course of the congress, Lenins formulation required the party member to be a member of one of the partys organizations, whereas Martovs only stated that he should work under the guidance of

1.
Leaders of the Menshevik Party at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, May 1917. Pavel Axelrod, Julius Martov and Alexander Martinov

2.
Noe Zhordania, Menshevik leader and Prime Minister of Georgia

Revolutionary socialist
–
The term revolutionary socialism refers to socialist tendencies that subscribe to the doctrine that social revolution is necessary in order to affect structural changes to society. More specifically, it is the view that revolution is a precondition for a transition from capitalism to socialism. Revolutionary socialists believe such a state of affai

1.
Karl Marx, 1875.

Minsk
–
Minsk (Belarusian, Мінск pronounced, is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Nyamiha rivers. It is the centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As the national capital, Minsk has an administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region. In 2013, it had a populatio

1.
Victors' Avenue in Minsk

2.
Minsk. A view of Svislach river

3.
The Saviour Church (1577) is part of an archaeological preservation in Zaslavl, 23 km (14 mi) northwest of Minsk.

Belarus
–
Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a found

Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 19

1.
Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as the Soviet leader. His rule is best known for his liberalization of political and social life, and the end of terror as a means of social control

3.
The Brezhnev era is commonly referred to by historians as the Era of Stagnation, a term coined by CPSU General Secretary Gorbachev

4.
Gorbachev, the last leader of the CPSU and the Soviet Union, as seen in 1986

Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

1.
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

2.
Flag

3.
The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

4.
Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

October Revolution
–
It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state

1.
Red Guards at Vulkan factory in 1917

2.
Bolshevik (1920), by Boris Kustodiev

3.
A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters.

4.
Cruiser Aurora

Russian Revolution
–
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The F

1.
Bolshevik forces marching on Red Square

2.
Soldiers blocking Narva Gate on Bloody Sunday

3.
Russian soldiers marching in Petrograd in February 1917

4.
The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Repub

1.
Flag (1954–1991)

White movement
–
Remnants and continuations of the movement, some of which only had narrow support, endured within the wider White émigré community until after the fall of Communism. The Whites had the aim of bringing about law and order and the salvation of Russia, fighting against traitors, barbarians. They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries

1.
Coat of Arms of the Russian Government. 1919

2.
"Why aren't you in the army?" Volunteer Army recruiting poster during the Russian Civil War.

3.
The White Army: the flag of the Battalion of Death, later integral to the Volunteer Army.

4.
Blagoveshchensky Temple, a Russian Orthodox church in Harbin, China

Russian Civil War
–
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against th

1.
Clockwise from top: Soldiers of the Don Army in 1919; a White infantry division in March 1920; soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Army; Leon Trotsky in 1918; hanging of workers in Yekaterinoslav by the Austro-Hungarian Army, April 1918.

2.
Anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army in South Russia, January 1918

3.
Russian soldiers of the anti-Bolshevik Siberian Army in 1919

4.
American troops in Vladivostok during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (August 1918)

Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started t

1.
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920

2.
Flag

3.
Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was edited out of the image.

Alexander Bogdanov
–
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov was a Russian and Soviet physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity. In the first decade of the Soviet Union, he was an opponent of the government from a Marxist perspective. Bogdanov received training in medicine and psychiatry and his scientific interests ranged from

1.
Alexander Bogdanov

Proletariat
–
The proletariat is a term for the class of wage-earners, in a capitalist society, whose only possession of significant material value is their labor-power, a member of such a class is a proletarian. The proletarii constituted a class of Roman citizens owning little or no property. This assembly, which met on the Campus Martius to discuss public pol

1.
A manual labourer at work in Venezuela. Manual labourers are generally considered to be part of the proletariat.

2.
A 1911 Industrial Worker publication advocating industrial unionism based on a critique of capitalism. The proletariat "work for all" and "feed all".

Anti-imperialism
–
A less common usage is by isolationists who oppose an interventionist foreign policy. The phrase gained a wide currency after the Second World War, some anti-imperialist groups who opposed the United States supported the power of the Soviet Union, such as in Guevarism, while in Maoism, this was criticized as social imperialism. In the Arab and Musl

1.
Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of Britain from 1874 to 1880, expanded the British Empire.

2.
To the Latin-American revolutionary Ché Guevara, imperialism was a geopolitical system of control and repression, which must be understood as such in order to be defeated.

3.
To the Russian revolutionary Lenin, imperialism was the highest, but degenerate, stage of capitalism.

Anti-revisionism
–
In the communist lexicon, anti-revisionism is opposition to attempts to revise, modify, or abandon the fundamentals of revolutionary theory and practice. In this view, reformism within communism is rejected as representing dangerous concessions to communisms adversaries, because different political trends trace the historical roots of revisionism t

1.
Αnti-revisionist caricature of 1976 by Albanian cartoonist Zef Bumçi depicting Nikita Khrushchev as a servant of the bourgeoisie

2.
Supporters of the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action), an anti-revisionist party, march during the May Day 2007 manifestations in Santiago, Chile, carrying a banner with the portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

Communism
–
Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others

4.
A demonstration of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Moscow, December 2011

Communist state
–
A communist state is a state that is usually administered and governed by a single party representing the proletariat, guided by Marxist–Leninist philosophy, with the aim of achieving communism. The term Communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, Communist states can be administered by a single, centralised party apparatus

1.
Map of countries that declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist–Leninist or Maoist definition—that is to say, "Communist states"—between 1979 and 1983. This period marked the greatest territorial extent of Communist states.

One-party state
–
All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. One-party states explain themselves through various methods, most often, proponents of a one-party state argue that the existence of separate parties runs counter to national unity. Others argue that the one party is the vanguard of th

1.
Presidential republics with a semi-presidential system.

Popular front
–
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, usually made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as social-democratic, Popular fronts are larger in scope than united fronts. During this time in France, the front populaire referred to the alliance of po

1.
Cover of an American Communist pamphlet from the Popular Front period making use of patriotic themes under the slogan "Communism is the Americanism of the 20th Century."

Socialist patriotism
–
Socialist patriotism refers to a form of civic patriotism promoted by Marxist–Leninist movements. Socialist patriotism is commonly advocated directly alongside proletarian internationalism, with communist parties regarding the two concepts as compatible with each other, the concept has been attributed by Soviet writers to Karl Marx and Vladimir Len

1.
National Day celebrations in Tianamen Square, Beijing in 2004.

2.
Arirang Festival mass games display in Pyongyang, they take place each year on Kim Il-sung's birthday.

3.
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Socialist state
–
A socialist state or socialist republic refers to any state that is constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. Aside from the Communist states, a number of states have described their orientation as socialist in their constitutions. In such cases, the system and machinery of government is not specifically structured to pursue the

1.
Symbolics on the banknotes of socialist states (V.I. Lenin in the Soviet note and "a worker with a female co-operative farmer" on the Czechoslovak one).

Foco
–
Although the original approach was to mobilize and launch attacks from rural areas, many foco ideas were adapted into urban guerrilla warfare movements by the late 1960s. During two years, the poorly armed escopeteros, at times fewer than 200 men, managed to win victories against Batistas army and police force, the small group finally managed to ta

1.
Guevara in the Congo. His plan was to use the communist zone on the western shores of Lake Tanganyika as a training ground for the Congolese and fighters from other revolutionary communist movements.

2.
Prior to the revolution of 1917, Stalin played an active role in fighting the Russian government. Here he is shown on a 1911 information card from the files of the Russian police in Saint Petersburg.

3.
A group of participants in the 8th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, 1919. In the middle are Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, and Mikhail Kalinin.

1.
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

2.
The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

3.
Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

4.
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

1.
Clockwise from top: A column of the U.S. 1st Marine Division 's infantry and armor moves through Chinese lines during their breakout from the Chosin Reservoir; UN landing at Incheon harbor, starting point of the Battle of Incheon; Korean refugees in front of an American M26 Pershing tank; U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez, landing at Incheon; F-86 Sabre fighter aircraft

2.
Three Koreans shot for pulling up rails as a protest against seizure of land without payment by the Japanese

2.
Raúl Castro (left), with his arm around his second-in-command, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, in their Sierra de Cristal mountain stronghold in Oriente Province, Cuba, in 1958.

3.
Map of Cuba showing the location of the arrival of the rebels on the Granma in late 1956, the rebels' stronghold in the Sierra Maestra, and Guevara and Cienfuegos's route towards Havana via Las Villas Province in December 1958.

4.
Fidel Castro (far left) and Che Guevara (centre) lead a memorial march in Havana on 5 May 1960, for the victims of the La Coubre freight ship explosion.

2.
Portuguese-held (green), disputed (yellow) and rebel-held areas (red) in Portuguese-Guinea and other colonies in 1970, before the Portuguese military operations known as Gordian Knot Operation (Mozambique), Operation Green Sea (Guinea) and Frente Leste (Angola).

3.
Portuguese Army soldiers in the beginning of the War in Angola. The camouflage uniforms and the FN FAL assault rifles identify them as Caçadores Especiais. By this time, the remaining Army forces still wore yellow khaki field uniforms and were mostly armed with Mauser 98k bolt action rifles.

2.
Trotsky (raising hand) with troops at the Polish front, during the Polish-Soviet War, 1919.

3.
Leon Trotsky in exile in Siberia 1900

4.
Lenin speaking at a meeting in Sverdlov Square in Moscow on 5 May 1920. Original photo with Trotsky and Kamenev standing on the steps of the platform. Later, this photo was censored, under Stalin's orders, to remove Trotsky and Kamenev.